Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.

Addendum 11/15/06: Fair is fair. I found an even better review by one Eric Chudler, PhD at Univ. of Washington, called Neuroscience for Kids. (don't laugh). I didn't review all the links, but it is certainly more comprehensive than what I have here.

You know how everyone says that people go insane when there's a full moon? Well, I looked it up.

Most studies finding a link vbetween violence and the moon were done in the 1970s. For example, a 1978 study found a lunar relationhsip to everything-- suicides, asssaults, MVAs, and psych ER presentations, with both homicides and assaults both occurring more often around the full moon. Then again, you have to be suspicious of any study that actually tells you they actually used a computer.

I did find an interesting (Greek) study finding an excess of seizures on full moons (34% vs. about 21% for the other phases.) Importantly (and in contrast to suggestions by other studies) these were not pseudoseizures, because all patients were monitored. The authors speculate either electromagnetic/gravitational effects (hey, it could happen) or an interaction between the intrinsic seizure threshold and the environment (i.e. you can change your own threshold.)

My interpretation of this is that the moon can't affect your behavior directly (duh), but one's relationship to lunar cycles could influence your behavior. Take the classic wolf and full moon relationship. Prey animals, such as rats, generally reduce their activity during the full moon (don't want to get caught, I guess.) Wild maned wolves (which eat rats) travelled significantly less during the full moon. The authors' explanation was that prey is less available, so wolves would want to conserve energy. Additionally, maybe one reason why so few studies are American is that we have a lot of artificial night light, so the moon has less or no influence, while elsewhere there is less artificial light? Who knows. I'm going to bed.